About Yield10 Bioscience

Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. (Yield10) operates as an agricultural bioscience company. The company focuses on the large-scale production of low carbon sustainable products from processing Camelina seed using the oilseed Camelina sativa (Camelina) as a platform crop. These seed products include Camelina oil for use as a low carbon biofuel feedstock; Omega-3 oils for nutrition; and PHA Bioplastics for biodegradable zero waste packaging solutions. The company’s commercial plan is based on developing and releasing a series of proprietary elite Camelina seed varieties incorporating genetic traits from its development pipeline which are being designed to offer improved on-farm performance. Camelina, an annual oilseed plant in the mustard family, was selected as the company’s platform crop based on its unique attributes, including its excellent agronomic traits, such as low water and fertilizer input, drought resistance and short life cycle, making it suitable as a rotation crop within the U.S. Northwest and regions of Canada, as well as a relay or cover crop with corn and soybean in the U.S. Midwest. The company estimates there is the potential for over 30 million acres of Camelina production in North America. Camelina, is in the same plant family as canola and naturally produces a relatively abundant harvest of oil-containing protein-rich seeds. Camelina is highly amenable to advanced genetic engineering and genome-editing technologies. The company’s new seed product traits include the PHA bioplastic trait developed by it and the omega-3 (EPA, DHA+EPA) oil traits on which it secured exclusive rights to a commercial license option in 2020. The company’s capital light business model is based on contracting with growers to produce Camelina grain using its proprietary Camelina seed. Yield10 will have the exclusive right to purchase the harvested grain from these growers for downstream processing to separate and sell the seed products into the different markets. The company’s commercial launch plan is to leverage the growing global demand for biofuels to decarbonize the transportation sector, and in particular, the renewable diesel (RD) and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) markets. As a first stage in the company’s initial Camelina commercialization, during the third quarter of 2022, it engaged growers in contracts for the production of Camelina grain and Camelina seed having a total acreage of approximately 1,000 acres. These growers are located in the U.S. and Canada with each grower planting between 30 and 160 acres of the company’s WDH2 (winter, cold tolerant) and WDH3 (winter, early maturing) seed varieties, with harvest expected to occur in the summer of 2023. The company is pursuing the development of elite Camelina germplasm exhibiting herbicide tolerance, disease resistance and other traits that in the near future, will form improved elite Camelina varieties for the biofuel market and will later be combined with the new seed product traits in development to expand its markets. The company has a pipeline of more than 10 novel yield and/or seed oil content performance traits in research and development. The company has research agreements in place for a number of its yield trait gene candidates, including agreements with GDM Seeds (GDM) and JR Simplot Company (Simplot). The company plans to launch the new Camelina varieties incorporating traits in the sequence with the E3902/WD-HT Camelina being closest to commercial launch following the completion of two successful seasons of field trials. The trait demonstrated excellent tolerance to the herbicide which the company plans to use for commercial production with no impairment of seed yield. The lead lines are in seed scale up phase while the company’s application for non-regulated status using the RSR process is pending with USDA-APHIS (U.S. Department of Agriculture - Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service). In addition, the company is progressing discussions with the herbicide producers to have Camelina added to their labels, an essential step towards enabling growers to use the herbicide with Yield10's new varieties. In launching its Camelina products business, the company plans to provide its seed to growers under contracts with Yield10, to use existing third-party oilseed processing assets through toll arrangements and to enter into offtake agreements with end users for the oil and protein meal to address markets, including low-carbon feedstock oil for the biofuels and protein meal for animal feed. Elite Camelina varieties will serve markets and represent a foundation for the future commercialization of the company’s PHA bioplastic and omega-3 traits, which it will develop separately and introduce into the elite varieties by plant breeding. In order to position Yield10 to execute on this plan, the company harvested its first 50 acres of Camelina seed grown under contract in Montana in 2020. During 2021 and 2022, the company conducted seed scale up activities with both spring and winter Camelina lines. During August 2022, the company harvested 17 acres of winter Camelina seed grown under contract in Saskatoon that it has processed and provided to growers in the U.S. and Canada under contracts for the 2022/2023 winter season. The company successfully field tested prototype PHA bioplastic trait Camelina lines during the 2020 and 2021 growing seasons. In the 2022 growing season, the company planted its best prototype PHA Camelina line at acre-scale for seed process development and plastic prototyping. In parallel, the company is developing the next generation versions of the PHA trait targeting 10% to 20% of total seed weight as PHA bioplastic and expects to achieve initial proof of concept for two PHA copolymer targets. In fall 2022, the company signed growers' contracts with multiple growers for production at small scale ranging from 30 to 160 acres. Yield10 is progressing a series of novel traits targeted at increasing the oil content in Camelina. The company is building significant capabilities and intellectual property around key oil biosynthesis pathways in plants based on technologies for increasing oil content in seeds. The company has two PHA biomaterial traits, C3014 and C3015, in its development pipeline and it carried out successful field tests in 2020 and 2021. The company is progressing to scale up the best prototype line, based on the C3015 trait, which showed PHA levels of up to 6% seed weight, to begin early product prototyping and market development studies for feed and water treatment applications. In 2022, the company completed a 3-acre scale-up of this line. In parallel, the company has a research and development program underway to optimize and develop commercial quality PHA trait lines based on insights from the field tests and its GRAIN platform with a goal to achieve 10 - 20% PHA in seed. The company’s seed traits and any future products that are successfully developed containing its seed traits are subject to USDA, FDA and EPA regulatory requirements. Intellectual Property As of December 31, 2022, the company owned or held exclusive rights to 19 patent families, including 15 issued patents and 41 pending patent applications, related to advanced technologies for increasing yield in crops, in the United States and throughout the world. As part of its agreement with Rothamsted, the company has an exclusive option to license two patent families, RR213 and RR305, including six issued patents and four pending applications, including both the original patent filing for the production of EPA, (docosahexaenoic acid) DHA+EPA oil in Camelina and for an improvement patent filed after the agreement was signed. The company’s portfolio of patent applications includes plant science technologies it has in-licensed globally and exclusively from the University of Massachusetts related to the yield trait gene C3003 and other advanced technologies based on advanced metabolic engineering methods to improve carbon capture and selectively control carbon partitioning in plants. The company’s portfolio of patent applications also includes advanced technologies for oilseed crops that it in-licensed globally and exclusively from the University of Missouri in 2018 and 2019 related to the yield trait genes C3007, C3010 and C3012. The company is building an intellectual property portfolio around its crop technologies and traits. As part of the company’s agreement with Rothamsted Research Limited (Rothamsted), it has an exclusive option to license two patent families, including six issued patents and four pending applications, including both the original patent filing for the production of EPA, DHA+EPA oil in Camelina and for an improvement patent filed after the agreement was signed. In November 2022, Yield10 and Rothamsted agreed to extend the exclusive option and license agreement until December 31, 2023. The company continues to seek, develop and evaluate new technologies and related intellectual property that might enhance its business strategy, industry position or deployment options. Business Strategy The company’s business strategy for major grain crops is to develop yield and performance traits for licensing to the major seed companies. Research and Development Expenses The company’s research and development expense included $7,750 for the year ended December 31, 2022. In-License Agreements Exclusive Collaboration Agreement with Rothamsted Research On November 12, 2020, Yield10 signed an exclusive collaboration agreement with Rothamsted to support Rothamsted’s Flagship Program to develop omega-3 oils in Camelina. The technology developed by Rothamsted could enable the sustainable, plant-based production of omega-3 (EPA, DHA+EPA) nutritional oils that closely mimic the composition of Southern Hemisphere fish oil, an important ingredient in the production of aquaculture feed. Omega-3 oils are also essential for human nutrition and have demonstrated benefits in heart health. Rothamsted is a world-leading nonprofit research center based in Harpenden, the U.K., that focuses on strategic agricultural science to the benefit of farmers and society worldwide. Over the last decade, the team led by Professor Johnathan Napier, Ph.D., Science Director, has demonstrated the production of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), DHA+EPA oils in Camelina seed. In addition, Prof. Napier’s team has carried out multi-year field trials and multiple feeding studies with research partners using the EPA, DHA+EPA Camelina oil in different fish species. Their partners have included at least one major aquafeed company. Under the agreement, Yield10 has provided financial support for Prof. Napier’s ongoing research including further EPA, DHA+EPA trait improvement, field testing and nutritional studies. As part of the agreement, Yield10 received an exclusive two-year option to sign a global, exclusive or non-exclusive license agreement to the technology. In November 2022, Yield10 and Rothamsted agreed to extend the collaboration agreement, including the license option, without additional funding support, through December 31, 2023. Under this collaboration, Yield10 will monitor the ongoing progress by Rothamsted while developing the business plan for the initial commercial launch, which is expected to serve the salmon feed market in Chile. License Agreement with the University of Missouri Pursuant to a license agreement with the University of Missouri (UM) dated as of May 17, 2018, the company has an exclusive, worldwide license to two novel gene technologies to boost oil content in crops. Both technologies are based on significant new discoveries around the function and regulation of ACCase, a key rate-limiting enzyme involved in oil production. The first technology, named C3007, is a gene for a negative controller that inhibits the enzyme activity of ACCase. The second technology, named C3010, is a gene which, if over-expressed, results in increased activity of ACCase. The UM license was expanded during May 2019 to include an exclusive worldwide license to a third gene in the ACCase complex, that the company has designated C3012, that may complement the activity of C3007 to boost oil content in crops. Pursuant to the UM license agreement, the company is required to use diligent efforts to develop licensed products throughout the licensed field and to introduce licensed products into the commercial market. In that regard, the company is obligated to fulfill certain research, development, and regulatory milestones relating to C3007, C3010 and C3012, including completion of multi-site field demonstrations of a crop species in which C3007, C3010 and C3012 have been introduced, and filing for regulatory approval of a crop species in which C3007, C3010 and C3012 have been introduced within a specified period. Regulation The company’s seed traits and any future products that are successfully developed containing its seed traits, however, are or will be subject to USDA, FDA, and EPA regulatory requirements. Seed traits developed using Traditional Genome Modification, such as the company’s C3003 yield trait that leverages the biological functions of an algal gene, are regulated under 7 CFR part 340. Regulated articles are subject to extensive USDA-APHIS oversight, including but not limited to permitting requirements for import, handling, interstate movement and release into the environment. The company has obtained determinations from USDA-APHIS that some of its genome edited lines are exempted from the 7 CFR part 340 framework administered by the agency. With laboratories and greenhouses in both the U.S. and Canada, the company is also subject to regulations governing the shipment of seeds and other plant material (including GE seeds and GE plant material) between its facilities in the U.S. and Canada, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture - Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's (USDA-APHIS) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) permits for the import and phytosanitary certificates for the export of plant materials that could pose a risk to domestic agriculture. History The company was incorporated in Massachusetts in 1992. The company was reincorporated in Delaware in 1998. It was formerly known as Metabolix, Inc. and changed its name to Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. in 2017.